Category: 6. Sports

Divyanshi Bhowmick created history at the Asian Youth Table Tennis Championships 2025 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on Tuesday, becoming the first Indian in 36 years to win the U15 girls’ singles continental title.

Subramanian Bhuvaneswari was the last Indian to win the girls’ title in the age group. She did it at the 1989 edition hosted by New Delhi.

The 14-year-old Indian table tennis player, seeded second, defeated the People’s Republic of China’s Zhu Qihi 4-2 (13-11, 11-8, 8-11, 12-10, 9-11, 11-8) in the final to cap off a stunning campaign, which saw her beat three Chinese opponents.

Divyanshi also secured qualification for the upcoming World Youth Table Tennis Championships, scheduled in Romania this November, with her gold-medal-winning run at Tashkent.

Divyanshi’s most notable performance came in the semi-finals, where she edged past Liu Ziling of China in a tightly-contested seven-game table tennis battle.

In the final, she held her nerve against Zhu Qihi, using her strong backhand and clever placement to overcome early pressure and close out the match.

A rising star in India’s junior table tennis circuit, Divyanshi was named Best Women’s Player (Overall) at the Table Tennis Super League (TTSL) Maharashtra in April.

St. Louis Blues President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Doug Armstrong announced today the Blues have signed forward Nick Bjugstad to a two-year contract worth $3.5 million ($1.75 million annual average value).

Bjugstad, 32, appeared in 66 regular-season games with the Utah Mammoth last season, posting 19 points (eight goals, 11 assists) and 16 penalty minutes.

A native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, the 6-foot-5, 205-pound forward has amassed 330 points (157 goals, 173 assists) and 344 penalty minutes in 760 career NHL regular-season games, including stints with Florida, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Arizona, Edmonton and Utah.

He has also totaled eight points (six goals, two assists) and 22 penalty minutes in 27 career postseason games.

Daria Kasatkina’s first Wimbledon win as a naturalized Australian citizen wasn’t the only highlight of her Tuesday at the All England Club.

After beating Colombia’s Emiliana Arango in straight sets in the first round, Kasatkina and her fiancée Natalia Zabiiako met Australian actress Cate Blanchett.

A smiling selfie posted to Instagram by Zabiiako commemorated the occasion, a meeting that the former Olympic figure skater confessed was a “dream come true.”

Two-time Academy Award winner Blanchett was just one of many famous faces in the star-studded Royal Box guest list across the first two days of the tournament.

The roster of attendees has also included another Australian movie star, Rebel Wilson — who is ubiquitous to the tennis tour — as well as Russell Crowe, Eddie Redmayne, David Beckham, and Maria Sharapova.

Back on the court, Kasatkina’s win snapped a four-match losing streak, and marked her first win on grass this summer. She had previously gone 0-3 with opening exits at the Queen’s Club, Berlin and Eastbourne. But she’ll hope that historic good results at SW19 will parlay into another deep run at the grass-court major. She has reached the third round at Wimbledon in each of the last two years and also had a 2018 quarterfinal appearance.

The No. 16 seed will look to keep the good vibes going when she faces Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu in the second round.

Zara Tindall recently tugged at the heartstrings of royal fans via her bittersweet candor, and honest admissions about her children.

In a chat with Bella magazine, the daughter of Princess Anne and mother to three kids admits some of her traits have even managed to peek out through her kids, Mia, 11, Lena, 7 and Lucas 4.

“My personality is coming out in the kids, and there are some parts that you love and some that you don’t like,” she is quoted saying.

Especially since as a parent “every day there is a different dilemma or problem”, although an ‘incredible’ one she admits.

She even shared her hope for her children’s future and added that as a mother one hopes that one can “instil in them the values that you hold and from both of us, what we have learned from our careers and our hard work, dedication, motivations, lessons and respect.”

Near the end, she also acknowledge all the struggles that come with modern day parenting too.

“It is so easy to be distracted from that kind of thing, so we try and work every day to make sure they get the same values that we had,” she added to the outlet all before signing off.

Editor’s Note: Read more NBA coverage from The Athletic here. The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA or its teams.

***

It’s the complaint that they all have, the exhausted, the annoyed, the aggrieved. The NBA, no matter what the mass media says, is more than the Los Angeles Lakers. Every time a big-name player gets released, every time a big-name free agent hits the market, every time a star wants a trade, an army of purple-and-gold photoshops arrives with the talking heads to turn the league’s eyes to the West.

And a lot of days, those people have a point.

But here in the early moments of the NBA offseason, the Lakers have firmly established themselves as the main character, for better or worse, because of their glaring deficiency at center, because of the big decisions ahead and because their two superstars are at wildly different stages in their career.

Beginning with Sunday’s news that Dorian Finney-Smith was opting out of his deal, the Lakers found themselves as the main event in text messages bouncing between scouts, executives, agents and reporters. It cascaded from there into a flurry of rumor and speculation. Does LeBron James want a trade? Is Finney-Smith going to leave? Are the Lakers trading Austin Reaves for Walker Kessler? Are they the favorites for Brook Lopez? And, in one last exclamation point for the night, did Deandre Ayton just take a buyout from the Portland Trail Blazers to go play with Luka Dončić?

It was a real set of waves crashing in for 12 hours or so, and it continued into Monday, when the Lakers were one of the biggest stories, sometimes behind the story.

The noisiest stuff was attached to James — the reaction from around the NBA to Rich Paul’s statement ranging somewhere between a not-so-veiled threat to leave to an outright trade request to a not-so-subtle reminder to the Lakers’ front office that his role in their team matters too (even if they’ve clearly put their priorities behind Dončić).

While some of that calmed on Monday with Paul telling Chris Haynes that there’s been no trade conversations and that James merely wants the Lakers to prioritize winning now while still being wise with their plans for Dončić and the future, that kind of storyline just doesn’t disappear.

And losing Finney-Smith to the Houston Rockets came with its own set of issues. The Lakers, according to team sources, offered two years against the four-year, $53 million deal he got with Houston because they wanted to maintain as much future flexibility as possible to be in position to land a superstar down the line to pair with Dončić.

Without Finney-Smith, the Lakers quickly pivoted to Jake LaRavia, the Sacramento Kings’ free agent who had interest from multiple teams. The 6-foot-7, 42-percent 3-point shooting wing was an unrestricted free agent after the Memphis Grizzlies declined his fourth-year option last November.

In Memphis and, briefly in Sacramento, LaRavia flashed the kind of potential that some evaluators coveted at a low price tag this free-agent cycle.

“Everyone can use a player like him,” one Western Conference executive told The Athletic.

Another executive praised LaRavia’s toughness, his shooting and promising skills as a playmaker off the dribble.

LaRavia is represented by Aaron Reilly and Reggie Berry, the same agency team that represents Reaves. Reaves made a surprise cameo at the end of a long LaRavia interview this summer, when it turned out that the car LaRavia was riding in was being driven by his future Lakers teammate.

According to league sources, LaRavia was the Lakers’ first call when free agency officially opened at 3 p.m. Pacific Time on Monday. In his conversation with Rob Pelinka and Lakers coach JJ Redick, LaRavia and his team were impressed with the ways Pelinka sold the strengths of the Lakers’ brand and Redick’s detailed vision for how he’d like to use the young wing.

The Lakers were able to get a relatively quick commitment to a two-year guaranteed contract worth $12 million.

“Hope Lakers fans are as excited as I am,” LaRavia posted on Instagram. “Let’s work.”

The Lakers’ work is far from over. LaRavia could be championed as a good signing … provided the Lakers land their center.

LA’s target list, which began the day with Brook Lopez, Clint Capela and Ayton on it, quickly shrank to one by the early evening with Lopez agreeing to sign with the Los Angeles Clippers and Capela heading to Houston via a sign-and-trade with the Atlanta Hawks.

Ayton was clearly the team’s top priority. He was picked first in the same draft as Dončić, shares an agency with Dončić under Bill Duffy, who heads WME basketball, and is best equipped to give the Lakers the rolling lob threat Dončić has thrived alongside. Signing Ayton is not without risk — The Athletic’s Jason Quick detailed those in his piece on Ayton’s time with the Blazers — but a return to high-stakes basketball at a critical juncture in his career combined with a point guard who can prop up centers who are way less talented certainly makes this seem worth it.

However, there’s competition. The Milwaukee Bucks, who lost Lopez to the Clippers in free agency, are trying to remain competitive and have access to the full midlevel exception after some cap creativity and a need for a center — giving them the ability to offer roughly $6 million more than the Lakers.

That means the Lakers remain in the middle of one of free agency’s biggest storylines.

And with a team that still has a sale to close, an extension to finalize with Dončić and the handling of James’ final chapters all still to come, they’re probably not going anywhere.

***

India chose to let speculation swirl around the potential involvement of Jasprit Bumrah in Wednesday’s second Test, insisting that a decision over whether to play their premier bowler would not be taken until late on Tuesday night.

Their fear is that should Edgbaston produce a pitch which favours batting, a prospect made more likely by the dry conditions in which the ground staff have been working, and the rain that is tentatively forecast for the weekend were to fall, a draw would become the most likely result. Playing the 31-year-old might end up doing little more than draining his reserves of energy ahead of a third Test that starts at Lord’s next Thursday. Shubman Gill, the India captain, would say only that Bumrah is “definitely available”.

Speaking before his team’s final pre-match training session Gill said selection decisions would be taken only after assessing the state of the pitch. “We just thought we’re going to have one final look today and see what kind of combination we want to go with,” he said. “I want to see the wicket one last time before we decide.”

Unhelpfully, the hover cover was parked on it for the entire duration of India’s visit to the ground, leaving Gill to ruminate on Ben Stokes’s description of the surface: “It looks a really, really good wicket. They’ve tried to produce something we were after. We’re pretty clear when we speak to groundsmen what we want. They try their hardest for us as well.”

Bumrah has done minimal training since the first Test ended in victory for England last Tuesday, and in keeping with his normal, restful pre-match routine was not at Edgbaston on Tuesday. Akash Deep, who cleaned up England’s top three on his first morning as a Test cricketer in Ranchi last February, is the most likely beneficiary if he is rested.

Beyond the result India’s most obvious problem in the first Test was a lack of lower-order runs – while their top five batters averaged 72.10 in Leeds their bottom six scored just 65 between them across both innings. “Nobody really expects that your last six is going to get out in under 40 runs,” Gill said. “Even if they play bad you expect maybe 100 or 80 runs.”

But though four of that top five scored a century, one of them twice, Gill insisted it was they who were largely to blame for the team’s inability to post match-winning totals, using the way he himself got out in the first innings, to a loose shot off Shoaib Bashir when on 147, as an example.

“Once you are set, and you know that you don’t have that much depth in your batting order, maybe the top order could take a little bit more responsibility and bat them completely out of the game,” he said.

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Stokes shut down questions about Bumrah’s involvement as “India’s problem to deal with”. Instead the only bowler who troubled him on Tuesday was Jofra Archer, who has remained with the group despite not being selected for this game.

“Facing him in the nets there, he got the ball swinging quite nicely, and effortless pace,” he said after training. “It’s been a while since I faced him, so it was a little bit of a wake-up call.”

Chicago Stars FC today announced that interim head coach, Masaki Hemmi, will be departing the club to pursue other opportunities, effective July 3. Assistant coach, Ella Masar, will serve as interim head coach while the Chicago Stars secure a new head coach.

“I’m incredibly grateful for my time with the Chicago Stars and the opportunity to work alongside such talented players and staff,” said Masaki Hemmi. “While it’s bittersweet to be leaving, the club has a bright future ahead. I’ll forever be thankful for the time I had with Chicago Stars FC.”

“We thank Masaki Hemmi for stepping up as interim head coach and working tirelessly to bring out the best in our players,” said Chicago Stars general manager, Richard Feuz. “While we are grateful for his time and dedication to the club, we fully support him taking the next step in his coaching career. We wish him much success as he pursues this exciting opportunity.”

Chicago Stars FC has been carrying out an extensive head coach search since parting ways with Lorne Donaldson in May.

“We are well underway in our thorough head coaching search,” said Chicago Stars FC president, Karen Leetzow. “We have narrowed down the candidate pool and expect to appoint a new head coach soon. While we have a lot of building ahead, we look forward to turning the page to the second half of our season and starting a new chapter for the team.”

Hemmi joined the club in 2024 as first assistant coach, helping lead the Chicago Stars’ return to the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) playoffs after the club finished at the bottom of the NWSL table in 2023. After a 1-5-0 start to the 2025 NWSL regular season landing the Chicago Stars back at the bottom of the table, Hemmi stepped in as interim head coach April 30. Under Hemmi, the Stars maintained a 0-4-3 record, improving to 13th place in the table with a 1-9-3 overall record heading into the NWSL midseason break. Prior to becoming the first Japanese head coach in the NWSL, acting or otherwise, Hemmi served as director of player personnel and first assistant coach at United Soccer League club, New Mexico United, from 2022-2023. Hemmi also spent time as an associate head coach preparing players for the Tokyo Olympics at Japanese side, INAC Kobe of the WE League, in 2021.

A former Chicago Star herself, Ella Masar begins her second stint as interim head coach for the club, previously serving as acting head coach at the end of the 2023 season. Masar will continue working closely with assistant coaches, Karina Báez and Brenton Saylor, as the trio remains focused on leadership and stability prior to a permanent head coach being named. Masar has spent more than two decades in professional soccer as a player and coach, joining the Chicago Stars as an assistant coach in January 2023. Most recently, Masar was selected to join the United States Women’s National Team coaching staff for the April international window.

The Chicago Stars would like to thank Masaki Hemmi for devotion to the club and the players throughout his time as both assistant and interim head coach, and wish him all best in his future endeavors.